Chapter 227 – 227. Center of the Macula

“First of all, do what you have been doing up to this point without questioning it.”

“Yes..”

“And hide the fact that you fought with us. Just tell them Michael isn’t back yet. It’s hard for the pups outside anyway to feel the time inside since it’s only been 24 minutes.”

“Yes, I understand..”

“Also…”

I gave orders to Ericsson. Dangdan told me to keep the same status as it has been until now.

Ericsson understood roughly everything I wanted and nodded in agreement. He also told them to check periodically in case someone thought to be Nick or Michael might be resurrected.

It would be a headache if they resurrected in their base.

He also said to move as much soil as possible to the ruins of Maw, not the Crimson Zone. Because there is natural water there, it seemed like it would be easier to farm than the stinky crimson.

Of course, you can’t farm just because you have water, but you can gradually fill the rest of the requirements. For example, if you bring LED lights for plant cultivation, you might be able to see some effect.

Engineer Jeong Ji-yeon said that among her skills, there was a skill called scientific farming.

The rapid growth of plants can be easily solved by inviting Hee-seon’s older sister or Joo In-hye, a plant farmer, to Hell. Even if you don’t do that, time flows differently inside and outside, so if you just let the slaves manage it, you’ll be able to harvest a huge amount of crops in a few days.

Anyway, I have to dig up the soil from the back mountain and move it to the abyss, and I have to make a separate rain gutter to prevent the water falling from the ceiling from turning the soil into a mess… In many ways, the slaves will have a lot of work to do.

Of course, the hard work will now be taken care of by the parasitic host or mushroom, so the human slaves only have to deal with complicated tasks. Ha Jin-seong said the other day that some slaves are satisfied with that alone.

The same situation occurred when the host of the parasitic tree took care of loading and unloading, and the human slaves only had to sort things.

It’s a thought in many ways, but in fact, I think necromancer is a job optimized for simple labor or farming.

Afterwards, I sat and rested for a while, thinking if I had anything else to do, when Carshinax grumbled and started talking to me.

[You tend to roll your body too hard.]

“Ah, it’s a surprise.. Ah.. Yes.. Heh heh..”

I wish I could turn on the blinker and come in. Carshinax is sometimes startled when suddenly spoken to. It seems like you enjoy it in the first place.

[Whoops.. I recognized it from the moment I ate without thinking.]

Even Indicron added a word to Carshinax’s words. Well, I’ve been eating it without much thought… I’ve never gotten rid of it, so I think it’s safe to say that I just covered it up and ate it.

[Looks like I’m done talking.]

‘Ah, Mr. Botamilli.’

Indichron told me that the seal would be released soon, so it seems that it has been completely released.

Out of the conversations I’ve had so far, I think I can hear my voice the most clearly, except when I’m face to face.

[I can finally give you my power properly.]

‘Oh…!’

[Do you remember? Skills that I have given you. Could it be that I forgot?]

Of course I remember. When I confronted her, she gave me her mysterious red fruit and upgraded her normal defensive skill ‘Twisted Carapace’ to ‘Twisted Scales’.

Originally, the twisted carapace was just a solid shield, but the twisted scales added to it had the effect of absolutely defending against all kinds of projectiles 3 times. Thanks to that, I have passed the risk of my life several times.

But now she was saying that the skill was worse than the original.

[Give me an intellect with many memories. I’d like to primarily break the brain… And then I’ll give you a veil of emptiness…]

Bota Millie, who taught me how to make offerings to her, projected information about the grace she would bestow upon my brain. A tiny fraction of the secrets of the Void, which humans should not know, flowed into my head.

My head pounded and the effects of the Void Veil began to infuse my brain.

“Turn it off…”

It’s a pain in the brain that I’ve been feeling for a long time. I let out a drop of saliva and fell to my knees. How dare I not kneel before the power of God?

Of course, it was just that the strength of his legs was slightly relaxed, but he was able to know the detailed information about his skills anyway.

[Void Veil: Surrounds the void and returns ‘all’ types of attacks except God’s Power to nothing.]

If the distorted scales had absolute defense power limited to projectiles, the void curtain was a skill that had absolute defense power against all attacks except for divine attacks.

It doesn’t seem to be able to block even the authority of the gods, but you shouldn’t expect that much. In the first place, it is amazing just to return all the attacks of the Awoken to nothing. It was a skill effect worthy of the void.

Also, while Distorted Scale had a limit of 3 times, even that limit was gone for the Veil of the Void.

‘Instead of that, mana consumption… It consumes 100 per minute for each use…’

Even if you cast Void Veil for just 5 minutes, a whopping 500 mana was consumed. If you were an ordinary Awakener, you would probably be reluctant to use it even once because of lack of magic.

However, my magic attribute is currently approaching 800. Considering that combat situations usually end between 5 and 10 minutes, you can absolutely defend for more than enough time.

‘Botamilli’s authority… It’s amazing, like a being that was sealed…’

Yes, by awakening the sealed god, I gained absolute power. It can be said that it is Sam who obtained a shield that nothing can pierce.

With this, I perfectly caught the three beats of utility, attack, and defense. The tentacle ejection given by Carshinax can be used instead of hands, so its utility is very high, and Abyss Maw is a very aggressive skill, and it is difficult to figure out in advance and block it unless you are a superhuman NPC.

In addition, since he had obtained a shield that turned all attacks into nothingness, he felt like he had become a truly undying monster.

I was able to clearly realize how much the killing of Nick and Michael had contributed to the Manmajeon. On the other hand, if I was at this level, I wondered what kind of skills Nick, the hero class of the predecessors, would have.

Originally, if there is a shield that can block anything, there is also a spear that can pierce anything.

A fight between spear and shield. Nick must have a skill that penetrates all types of defense. Maybe that’s the holy sword.

‘Come to think of it…’

Three swords captured from Nick’s corpse. Two of them were weapons named ‘Sword of Full Moon’ and ‘Sword of Greening’, respectively. But, oddly enough, the other one wasn’t even an item…

‘It was just a child’s toy…’

It was a little hard plastic toy sword that could only come out of a tokusatsu film. When I pressed the button, even a song in Japanese came out.

With this, I was able to learn another fact about the holy sword. The Holy Sword is probably a kind of skill that does not have a physical substance. It must be an object summoned in the form of being possessed by a toy-like object like this. Therefore, it can be said that the holy sword was not taken away from Nick.

‘Still, since I took two of his weapons… Nick must be grieved.’

Two swords captured from his corpse. This was quite a treasure.

[Full Moon Sword: Accumulate moonlight to use ‘Full Moon Unlock’. If you use full moon release, you can shoot sword energy containing moon energy indefinitely as much as the charged time. If you accumulate the light of the crescent moon, your sword will be dyed black and you will go into a rampage state. You will be able to manipulate the shadows if you enter the congestion state.]

Because it was a sword used by a warrior, its performance was crazy. Immediately, I handed over Manwol’s sword to Areumi, who had just changed her job to a sword master. Although Palus would envy him… That person was a person who would cut down Yongrin even with a wooden stick, so Areum gave it to him.

[Sword of Greening: Driven into the ground to absorb the energy of the earth. It has different effects depending on the condition of the ground. If you absorb the energy of the fertile land, it becomes a bow sword and heals wounds. If it absorbs the energy of the dry land, it becomes a sword and steals the opponent’s energy. If it absorbs the energy of the contaminated land, it becomes a demonic sword, and contaminated thorns grow on the blade.]

This was an unusual sword that changed its characteristics by absorbing the energy of the earth. Depending on the condition of the ground, the power exerted also seems to be different, so I think I can use it according to the situation. This was also handed over to Areum. Areum uses dual swords, so she can use them well.

“Ericson. Bring in about three of the oldest people here.”

After thinking about the sword for a while, time passed again. I called Ericsson before it was too late. The Void Veil that Botamilli showed me was a skill I had to acquire right away, so I thought it would be better to get it now. Soon, Ericsson brought along a group of Awoken who looked a little older.

“Ericsson, how old are these guys?”

“From the far right, forty-five, fifty-two, fifty-one.”

“Right.”

Of the three men, the white man in the middle was the eldest. He was a man who looked like a sheriff from a TV show somewhere.

“My class is just a fighter… My name is Walter.”

Botha Milli only said to offer the head of an older person, and he was a god who did not particularly care about the offering process.

“Goodbye, Walter.”

I grabbed Walter’s head and used an unclean hand. Soon he shuddered and his head melted into a stinky green slime.

“Dedicated.”

The first offering to Botamilli.

She hissed, as if savoring the memory of the one I dedicated.

[It’s not enough.]

But Walter’s memory didn’t seem to be enough to tear her void shroud off of her.

“Hmm. Then.”

I grabbed the head of Louis, who was fifty-one.

Louis begged me, his teeth chattering to the point of gnashing.

“Please…”

He closed his eyes and begged for his life. However, I can’t help it. I melted Louis’ head.

“Ahhhhh !!!

Louis died as his head melted with a scream.

Erickson, who stood by and watched the process, eventually couldn’t stand the feeling of vomiting and began to vomit in a corner.

[Hmm… Not enough if. More..]

“Indeed. It was good that the three of us prepared.”

He seems like a god with better food than I thought. Well, it’s understandable since he was only licking his lips while sealed. I put my hand on the head of the last offering. His name was Brian and his class was an unusual wrestler.

An unusual class with mostly grabbing skills. However, it was unique and not a very useful job, so I gave it to Botamilli without any burden.

-Dump.

After making offerings to the three, Botamilli let out a satisfied breath.

[This is enough.]

Soon I felt someone touch my soul with a terrifying sensation. It’s as if a snake is squeezing me tight… Skills are being converted. The distorted scales were in the process of being transformed into a void shroud.

“Huh…”

[Okay. Now a part of me will protect you forever.]

Scales with a unique mosaic-like pattern sprouted from the palm of the hand and then disappeared in an instant.

The power of the void came into my hands.

******

When Hellas drank the hastily prepared antidote, his body improved markedly. There was no benefit to delaying any longer, so we decided to set off right away.

“I will be back! Everyone is waiting for you!”

After saying hello to the people remaining at the base to protect their homes, we moved on to Hwangban. As the seeker held the arrowhead tip, the tip of the arrow trembled and pointed in one direction. There was no worry of getting lost.

“There must be the center of the macula at the end of this road. Whoa..”

Henry said he had never entered the center of the macula. It is said that he only vaguely knew about its existence, but did not know the details. First of all, it didn’t matter much because it felt like I was taking him as a combat agent rather than a guide. Because the road tells you everything anyway.

That’s how we continued to move towards the direction indicated by the arrow-shaped arrow attached to the helmet. It’s been 25 hours since I walked that long. A hazy, yellowish mist appeared that could be seen with the naked eye.

“Master, yellow dust is starting to float in the air. It must mean that it has entered the macula.”

“Oh. At las..”

We put the muzzles made by the investigator into our mouths one by one. As long as we have this in our mouths, the poisonous smoke of the macula can’t harm us.

Instead, conversation is now near impossible. You must communicate only with your hand gestures and move forward. If you spit it out of your mouth even once, the effect will be gone.

******

“Whoop… Whoop…”

“Eh?”

“Ugh.”

Conversation was impossible, so we, who were casually walking around and communicating, ended up finding the center of the hwangban.

‘Here it is..’

An old building built in the center of a completely polluted subterranean lake. The splinter trembles and points to the center of the subterranean lake. That building is the center of the macula.

The building was small, but even that was so disfigured that it was hard to recognize, and it looked messy with the yellow stems covering it.

Maybe it was a temple that was once very beautiful. However, now it has turned into a place that is reluctant to approach due to the emission of yellow poison gas.

I wanted to give an order to the mushroom people I brought with us to carry us on our backs, but I couldn’t because my mouth was blocked.

“Ooh.”

“Ugh.”

Eventually, I nodded to Henry to cross the Underground Lake first. Then Henry, startled and frowning, wets the whale.

Even Henry refused to enter as it was an underground lake where he would surely die if he entered it. He even looked at me as if he was asking me how to give such a harsh order.

‘Driving me crazy.’

How do I get there While contemplating whether to go there through Mer’s wings, a voice came from the center of the underground lake.

[Collock.. Collock… When did you hear the news that he was coming… You did everything you could and now crawled out… It’s a pair of things in this world.. Collock..!! Kahak Thoo… Shit… Don’t make the old man wait… I don’t know when I’ll die… I want…]

At the same time as the voice of the dying old man was heard, a tombstone rose from the bottom of the underground lake and a stone bridge was created.

‘That bastard… A helper..?’

As I listened to the grumbles of the being sealed in the center of the macula, I thought it would be nice to make an offering to Botamilli for some reason.